On 12 February 2021, a member of Pakistan's Ahmadiyya sect was gunned down. Abdul Qadir, 65, was killed at the entrance to his homoeopathic clinic on the outskirts of Peshawar. Police sources confirmed the attacker to be a 16-year-old, with the attack appearing to be religiously motivated. The attack is another in a long line of attacks against the Ahmadiyya sect, which has been subject to increasing violence over the past two decades. The most notable being the 2010 Lahore massacre, where 87 worshippers were murdered during their Friday prayers. The question is, what motivated a 16-year-old to commit this latest heinous and unprovoked attack?
LEGISLATED PERSECUTION
The answer can be found in the constitution of the Pakistani state itself. Pakistan is the only country in the world where anti-Ahmadi legislation is enshrined in the constitution. The basis of this persecution is in a rejection of the Ahmadi belief that their founder, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was divinely appointed as the promised Messiah and Promised Mahdi (Guided One), prophesied in to bring about the final triumph of Islam. Opponents of this sect view it as a dangerous deviation from Islam, and argue that Ghulam Ahmad is a false prophet and Messiah, who established his sect to serve the British. Many Muslims, therefore, consider the Ahmadiyya as either Kafirs (infidels) or Zindiqs (heretics). Despite playing a critical early role in Pakistan's formation, the community has suffered increasing state legislated discrimination since the 1970s.
In 1974, under Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a constitutional amendment explicitly targeting Ahmadi Muslims was enacted. The amendment declared that the community were "not Muslims for purposes of law and constitution”—representing the proverbial nail in the coffin of Mohammed Jinnah's vision of a secular and religiously free Pakistan. This state-sanctioned persecution was to be intensified ten years later, when the then military ruler, General Zia-ul-Haq, enacted Pakistan's infamous anti-Ahmadi laws and amended its blasphemy laws under the Ordinance XX on April 26 1984. The laws made it a criminal offence, punishable by three years imprisonment (or death under the blasphemy laws), for an Ahmadi to call themselves Muslim or practice Islam. Thousands of Ahmadi Muslims were charged under these laws, and Pakistan developed a culture of anti-Ahmadi harassment, violence and murder.
Thirty-six years on, these laws remain in Pakistan's statute books, leading Pakistani Ahmadis to be plagued by institutional discrimination, harassment and persecution. Openly declared as “Wajibul Qatl” (deserving to be killed), the community is vilified throughout civil society, with corruption, judicial failings, and the fear of mob violence ever-present within their lives. This hatred has fed into the next generation with anti-Ahmadi propaganda taught to children in schools, including in their textbooks. The Ahmadi community also faces constant oppression and discrimination in eligibility to hold government positions, contesting elections, in their businesses, and the destruction of their homes and places of worship at the behest of the Pakistani establishment. Most, if not all, Ahmadis in Pakistan live in great anxiety about their safety, fearing the day they are accused of being a Qadiani (a derogatory term).
Playing a central role in this persecution is the right-wing clerical base, whose power at the local and government levels is significant. According to partial data collated by South Asia Terrorism Portal, since March 6, 2000, at least 128 Ahmadis have been killed and 113 injured in 28 incidents of killing. The murder of Abdul Qadir follows a trend of random attacks made upon the Ahmadi populace. In July 2020, Tahir Ahmad, who was on trial for blasphemy, was shot dead in a Peshawar courtroom. What is particularly sobering is, despite engendering community outrage, the perpetrators of these crimes are usually never prosecuted. In fact, these killings are often celebrated. For instance, after the killing of Mr Ahmad, the gunman was hailed as a hero within the local community, underscoring the seriousness of the threats they face and the callous indifference of the authorities towards the risks many Ahmadi's face in their day to day lives.
LOOKING FORWARD
Without a democratic voice, the community continues to suffer in silence, with no action taken to redress the situation. Any conversation on the Ahmadi community's situation has been wholly suffocated, with the right-wing clerics and politicians dominating the civil discourse, leading many ordinary Pakistanis to become radicalised against the community, subsequently leading to the incessant violence subjected upon people like Abdul Qadir. It seems likely that this violence will continue unabated unless significant international pressure is brought down on the Pakistani regime to support the Ahmadiyya community's rights.
Zachary is a researcher and masters graduate in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS based in London. Zachary's research has focused upon prevailing human rights issues within the Asian continent, with a particular focus on South Asia. He is particularly interested in what solutions exist to ethnic and religious divisions and how the global community can be mobilised ensuring all people are guaranteed their basic human rights, regardless of class, creed and race.